The Cues to Drink — And They’re Not Always What You Think

Triggers, triggers everywhere. Even while waiting for the train. (Photo: Andy Kropa/ TueNight)

Every alcoholic is different, and every trigger — those things that make us crave a drink — is different for every alcoholic.

If you take a big fat Ketel One martini filled with olives and stick it right under my nose, there’s a 99.9% chance that I’ll be triggered to drink. Or if you force me to smell a woodsy-yet-slightly fruity merlot, then yeah, I’m going to want to taste that.

Then there are those other types of triggers — the sly and insidious ones that are so sneaky I sometimes don’t even know that I am experiencing them.

Like this chair in my apartment — really, the most comfortable chair in the world, which I sat in almost exclusively since I bought it nearly 10 years ago. It was also the chair that I did most of my at-home drinking in. And the first time I sat in it sober, I immediately wanted a drink. I tried many times to slide into that once comforting spot, but each and every time, I was triggered.

Best. Chair. EVER. (Photo: Susan Linney/ TueNight)

So what did I do? I opted for the couch instead of my former martini throne. And I continued to do so for a long time (even though it’s far less comfortable).

Happily, I can report that after about nine months the urges subsided, and I’ve been reunited with my Archie-Bunker-esque spot.

Then there was the shower — no joke. Thankfully, for the sake of my own hygiene and those around me, I got over that trigger pretty quickly. But for the first few weeks home from rehab I thought about drinking like mad while I shampooed and scrubbed. I used to drink in secret all the time in the shower; something about that experience stuck. Perhaps it was the feel of the heavenly hot water running down my back while I took shots of vodka that made everything in my life feel heavenly, too.

But as I said, that one subsided fairly fast, perhaps simply because a shower is a shower and since I take them so often, I was swiftly able to re-associate the experience with getting clean (pun intended) rather than getting drunk.

And there are many more — some obvious (vintage alcohol ads, for example, which I still love and was so sad to have to take down from our walls), and some less so (delicious pieces of Toro sushi, because I just can’t imagine eating one without sake.) I know that for the rest of my life I’ll be dealing with these triggers. They are part of the disease, and they come in all different shapes and sizes and can sneak into your brain whether you’re sober two years or 20.

Therapy is helping me to identify these subtle suckers, sooner rather than later, because at the end of the day, they have potential to truly take me down. The major ones I’m dealing with now are emotional — grief over my dad’s death (which I didn’t deal with when he died in 2011 because Svedka was so much easier), guilt over past behaviors, work stress, money stress; essentially, life.

I’d be pissed off if someone shoved a glass of scotch or wine in front of my face, but at this point, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t drink it. I have a better understanding and awareness of the consequences.

But if I don’t know that I’m being triggered, if some subtle something is playing with that alcoholic part of my mind (the crazy committee, I often call it) then how do I know how to help myself?

All I can do is watch for the signs — am I suddenly acting irritably? Have I put on a pair of cranky pants without a reasonable reason? When I get annoyed and have no good explanation as to why, alcohol, in some form or another, is usually the culprit — my brain just hasn’t realized it yet.

So I just keep forging ahead, feeling so grateful that I’m not where I was two and a half years ago. I also know that I’ll learn to identify more and more of these triggers as time goes on, and as I do, it will continue to become easier to curb them.

The bottom line is simple — if I’m vigilant about using my sober tools, hopefully I’ll prevent that deadly trigger from ever being pulled.

3 Comments

You just made me really relieved I never drank sake.
This is so good. I was so shocked that I could be sober in the apartment I drank in alone for two years. Summer has been hard, like you’ve shared and I think I’ve told you. Just a shift in the air that makes me long for patio and never-enough beers. But today I don’t choose it, and that’s better for me and for the world at large, I think. 🙂

lauriewrites Right on Laurie! (Um, I can’t believe I just “said” right on.) Every day we have a choice, and just that fact helps makes me feel free(ish) from my disease. Two and a half years ago I didn’t think I had one. Still, it SUCKS sometimes and summer is hard, I agree. Thanks so much for sharing your experience (which also always helps). And for reading!!

Margit’s Note: You Glow, Girl

Hey you! We’re back with a new issue and it’s a hot and spicy scorcher. Our theme this week is Glow — as in “Glow little glow worm glimmer, glimmer.” As in fiery pink and orange lights blazing across a June night.